Box Forest offers a legal service we call The Lawyer is IN. We offer a light touch, affordable legal service, all about sustainability and ease of doing business. Not all legal work is simple, but we reckon 80% of contracts can be done in 4 pages or less.
OUR CLIENTS - we offer quality commercial legal work for a major client base that is typically not targeted or served that well by law firms. Commercial firms are set up to service: a) enterprises with large workflows; b) volume processing, c) major projects, and d) litigation. Nothing wrong with that.
Clients outside those categories can find themselves priced out, cutting corners or trying workarounds. But some projects need decent legal attention – launching new operations, large financial or resource commitments, governance and compliance, customer-facing documents.
We focus on clients with small or no internal legal team, and a need for quality legal / project work from an experienced lawyer. We don’t rely on volume of work or size of transaction.
OUR MODEL – the law firm and agency profit models rely on high charges to service a high cost base. Our solution is to: a) keep overheads minimal, b) have work done by a single lawyer (no handing up and down the chain), c) charge modestly, d) pay ourselves basically what we earn (cutting out the ~40% profit margin or agency clip), all enabling us to e) reduce charges.
OUR PRACTICE – The Lawyer is IN is a general commercial practice. We cover most types of legal work that will be encountered by small to medium businesses, not-for-profits, start-ups and publicly funded bodies. To list a few areas – organisation set-up; sales and distribution contracts ; debt and equity finance; marketing and consumer law; procurement; re-structure or sale of business; technology and privacy.
In addition, we offer specialised expertise in a few fields – telecommunications, renewable energy and technology, software / licensing, and competition / trade practices.
CREDENTIALS – Mick Coleman started in 1994 at a top tier Melbourne law firm, then worked in WA government for 5 years, and as a lawyer at Telstra for 13 years, the last 8 as a General Counsel. In 2015 Mick resumed private practice, joining the partnership at top ten Australian law firm Mills Oakley, where he continues to consult. Box Forest creates a vehicle for Mick and like-minded senior lawyers, writers and consultants to work with a broader group of clients and projects.
CHARGES – our standard legal rates ex GST are around 30% below comparable firm rates - $500/hr, or $2,800 a day. We offer “low bono” rates for a range of clients and circumstances, and charge less for non-legal consulting work. The Lawyer is IN model also allows time for pro bono, policy writing, conservation and sustainability work. Please contact us about any of these things.